Shopify analytics: Understanding your Shopify reports

Shopify users can keep track of their business with different reports, showing a range of business metrics and important analytics for your Shopify website.

For full access to all of the different reports you need to be subscribed to the Shopify Plan or higher. However, if you are on the Basic Shopify plan you can view channel specific summaries of yours sales from Shopify home. If you’re on theAdvanced Shopify plan you can also build your own custom reports.

We take a look at the different Shopify reports covering sales, finances, sales, traffic and customer’s behaviours, and highlight some of the key business metrics you should be watching out for.

Finances report

The finances report shows you an overview of your sales, payments, pending payments and account information such as your Shopify fees. You’ll be able to view different finance reports based on the channels that you have within your Shopify account including your online shop, any physical stores that you use Shopify Point of Sale software for, and apps, or Facebook or Pinterest sales that are linked.

The difference between sales and payments within your Shopify reports is that sales refer to all orders made and the amount they are for, whereas payments refer to money that has been paid to you by your customers - these could be different if someone has placed an order but not completed their payment yet.

These reports are available to Shopify users on all plans. All other Shopify reports are only available on the Shopify, Shopify Advanced or Shopify Plus plan.

Sales report

Shopify’s sales report breaks down all the information related to the orders that have been placed. You can view your sales by month, hour, channel, location (for Point of Sales), staff and by product. Within the sales report, you can find some of the key metrics for your online business including, average order value, gross sales and net sales.

You can also view a ‘Sales by traffic referrer’ report, which breaks down where your customers come from, for example whether they came from a search engine, or a link in an email that you sent out. This is a good way of seeing how effective your marketing is, and whether you need to improve your Shopify store’s SEO.

Customers report

Under the customer reports, you’ll be able to see reports on your customers over time, customers by expected value, and new customers by country.

Within these reports, you can see useful metrics such as average order count, average order total and expected purchase value - all of which can give you an insight into who your customers are.

Acquisition reports

Reports under acquisition cover visits over time, visitors by referrer, visitors by marketing campaign, and visitors by location. 

These reports don’t show converted sales, or the number of orders, just people that have viewed your website.

Behaviour reports

Behaviour reports help you to understand how your customers and visitors to your Shopify store interact with it, such as what they’re searching for, which pages they visit and how they’re viewing your shop.

You can find reports on top product searches, top product searches with no results, visitors by landing page, visitors by device, and webcart analysis.

Product searches reports give you an insight into what customers are looking for on your website, with this you can make sure all your listings have the most appropriate titles and descriptions that include the most effective search terms.

The webcart analysis will give you 12 pairs of products that have been added to the same cart in the last 30 days (but not necessarily purchased). This can give you an idea of what products people are looking to buy at the same time, and which ones you can add a link for related items on your product pages.

By fully understanding how your customers behave on your website you should be able to improve your product pages, upsell and cross-sell products, and increase your average order total.

Users on the Advanced Shopify or Shopify Plus plan can create their own custom reports, find out more about custom Shopify reports here.

Key business metrics for Shopify

Within the different Shopify reports there are a number of key business metrics that are important to understand so that you can keep an eye on the success of your Shopify store.

Gross sales

What is it? This is the total amount of all your sales within a certain period, without taking into account any outgoings or discounts, not including shipping charges.

How is it calculated? Product price x quantity = Gross sales

All your cancelled, pending and unpaid Shopify orders are included in this. However, any test or deleted orders will not be included in the calculation.

Why is it important? Keeping an eye on your gross sales gives you a quick idea of how well your business is doing, and whether your gross sales are increasing over time. You can find your gross sales for your Shopify website within your finances report.

Net Sales

What is it? Your net sales is the total amount of all your sales (gross sales) with any discounts and returns taken off.

How is it calculated? Gross sales - discounts - returns = net sales

Why is it important? Your net sales can give you a better idea of how much money you end up with, and the difference between gross sales and net sales will tell you if you’re offering too many discounts or having to process too many refunds. If you end up with a lot of refunded products you need to review the reasons for them to see where you can improve your business. You can find your net sales within your finances report and your sales report.

Total sales

What is it? All your sales (gross sales) with discounts and refunds taken off, and any shipping fees and taxes added on.

How is it calculated? Gross sales - discounts - refunds + taxes + shipping.

You can find your total sales in your Finances report, your sales report, and in the overview for your shop in your Shopify Home.

Find out more about the key business metrics you should be tracking for your ecommerce business here.

Tracking your Shopify sales

You can keep track of all your sales on Shopify and other ecommerce platforms using Zenstores Insights. It can help you keep an eye on your sales performance, highlight which products and channels are performing well, and identify your most valuable customers.

Learn more about Zenstores Insights here.